Batman: The post-Crisis Chronology

Now that we’re fully entrenched into the New 52 era, it is easy to finally put a cap on Post-Crisis Batman, and come up with a “finished product”. I’m not going for complete here by any means, but I do try to hit all of the major events. Everyone has their own different Batman chronology, especially when it comes to the first few years of his career. A lot of people try to include Loeb and Sale’s The Long Halloween and Dark Victory. However, those two epics prevent a lot of other issues from fitting in. Instead, I used Batman Annual #14 for the first Two-Face, and Robin Annual #4 as the first Robin, and built a map around those issues.

Year One (TPB)
Batman #404-407

Dark Moon Rising
Batman and the Monster Men #1-6
Batman and the Mad Monk #1-6
The Man Who Laughs #1

(There are some minor potential continuity issues with Batman Annual #19 and Detective Annual #8, but I have chalked those up to unreliable narrators. It wasn’t worth throwing out entire issues for one panel. Regarding The Long Halloween #4, I had a copy of the Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told that had the Joker scenes excerpted from that issue. Since I was cutting up the trade for other projects, I opted to include the story at the end of this book. Any scenes not involving the Joker are not included in this reprint.)

(As I mentioned in the Shadow of the Bat map, I wanted to include more of the Batman and Detective issues regarding the mayoral election that rounded out this volume. However, I am not a fan of Kelley Jones’ art, hence not getting any of those issues. When I got the Detective issues, they didn’t fit in well with the story arc in SOTB. Both series were running two-parters that should have been taking place on the same night, but the chronology just did not fit.)

(The original TPB only includes the last two stories from Batman Chronicles #4, skipping the Hitman story. It also cuts the last page of Robin #28, which has a bit of a cliffhanger that leads into the next two issues of Robin. The “big cliffhanger” is that Tim’s girlfriend dyed her hair.)

(This is one case where the TPB — and I’m referring to the original version, not the 2015 expanded edition — offers a better reading experience than the original release of the crossover. Several of the secondary series and one-shots slowed down the main narrative. The original TPB release omitted the non-quake subplot pages from Nightwing #19.)

(Yes, the Arkham one-shot was labeled as part 16 of Cataclysm. However, the TPB skipped it for good reason. It was completely self contained, and had no effect as the penultimate chapter. In fact, it completely halts the momentum building towards the conclusion, and would have been better served as a release during the first month of the crossover. It does not affect continuity as the lead story in this Aftershock volume. The events of that issue are referenced in the Shadow of the Bat chapters of Road to No Man’s Land.)

(The Gotham Knights backups were left over from Fugitive, and were some of the few that could fit into regular Batman continuity. As for the Detective backups, #777-780 continued a story started in #776, so I left them out. #782 stayed in because it shared a page with the lead story. #781 also shared a page, but since it was the middle of the arc, I had to scan and print anyway. I used the reprint from “Man Who Laughs” for #784-786, so had to make copies of the Josie Mac story in #784.)

Hush (TPB)
Batman #608-619

(Also includes the two page origin sequence and a six page interlude from Wizard also by Loeb and Lee.)

Death and the Maidens (TPB)
Detective #783 (backup)
Death and the Maidens #1-9

Other issues that were considered, but ultimately not included:
-Turning Points 1 — cannot fit into any Batman continuity, unless you skip from Year One to Knightfall and don’t want to include any other stories.
-LOTDK 11-15 (Prey) — conflicts with Batman and the Monster Men. There is a way to reconcile the two arcs, but I didn’t feel it was worth it for binding. Instead, I got the Prey/Terror TPB to have as part of my “not quite continuity” collection, along with TLH and DV.

Here’s a list of LOTDK issues I have, and where they show up in the map:

#1-10 – Legends of the Dark Knight
#11-15 – Prey TPB (outside of main continuity)
#16-20 – Venom TPB
#21-23 – Year Two
#27 – Art of Gotham
#28-30 – Faces TPB
#32-34 – Year Two
#38 – Times Like These
#42-43 – Year Two
#50 – Batman Through the Ages (outside of main continuity)
#59-61 – KnightQuest
#62-63 – Knightsend TPB
#0 – Year Two
#79 – DCU Christmas volume 2 (could be outside of main continuity)
#80-82 – Year Two
#100 – Batman Through the Ages (outside of main continuity)
#116-126 – No Man’s Land
#132-136 – Times Like These
#137-141 – Prey TPB (outside of main continuity)
#159-161 – Year Two
#168 – New Gotham 2
#182-184 – War Games

Annuals
#1 – Times Like These
#2 – Art of Gotham
#4 – Elseworlds (outside of main continuity)
#7 – Year Two

It’s been a while, so I’m a little fuzzy on details, but I think it’s mostly dealing with Gordon’s personal timeline. Turning Points #1 was written as if it took place immediately after Year One concluded, with Gordon just making Captain, and his wife and son leaving him. Gordon makes a reference to getting a house like Harvey and Gilda, which implies a pre-Two-Face Harvey Dent.

So skipping to Knightfall might be an exaggeration, but TP #1 does conflict with many issues that make up several of the early volumes on this list.

The biggest problem is with Batman Annual #14, the Two-Face origin story. Based on story clues, that story would take place around May and June of year 2.

1.) Gordon says he should get a house like Harvey and Gilda.
—–I doubt he’d be thinking that after Dent becomes Two-Face.

2.) Gordon’s wife and son leave him.
—–They are both present in Batman Annual #14, with no signs of any separation having happened yet.

3.) People are grumbling about Gordon’s promotion to Captain.
—–Makes sense if this happens immediately after Year One. But if this gets pushed into Year Two or Three, it just seems odd that people would still be griping so much.

4.) Gordon yells at Batman that they are not friends.
—–Perhaps this goes before LOTDK #161, where they agree to be friends? Unless Gordon is angry and lashing out, so it could go after.

5.) Batman keeps going on about how he’s new and wants Gordon’s blessing.
—–Doesn’t seem like Batman would still be in that mindset after Two-Face.

Technically, you can see it also in wikipedia, TP#1 is right after Batman Year One so Two-Face doesn’t exist yet. Even if it’s been released on January 2001 it doesn’t mean you can’t read it after Year One. If it’s read after Year One and before Annual #14 there aren’t any problems, are there? I have a question that you probably know since you made this list: is there any comic which Gordon’s wife and son return to Gotham?

sorry I hadn’t understood. Yeah it isn’t very clear, but you can imagine they came back in the meantime. Let’s say you can choose whether put it in continuity or not because technically as far as I know DC considers it canon but it makes that error, so the reader chooses if imagine that they came back in the meantime or consider it a continuity error.

bluedevil may I ask you something? I already know that Batman TH and DV make some continuity errors, but I’m wondering if they are big continuity errors. Since you didn’t put them in your continuity could you tell me what are the biggest ones?

They’re not so much as errors as an alternative telling of events. Those two stories lock in two entire years of Batman continuity, and they also deal with the origins of Two-Face and Robin. They can fit in, but then you’re dumping many other stories. Not including those stories allows for more flexibility in building a continuity around the other stories.

which stories do you dump? and anyway did you read all the comics that appear in the list? sorry for all the questions but I just started reading batman (2 months ago), and finding all the post crisis batman stories in chronological order is pretty difficult; for now I read the best ones like Batman Arkham Asylum, Year One, TLH, DV, the Killing Joke, TDKR and the Man Who Laughs but now I want a complete Batman from the beginning to the end, so I’m searching and asking everywhere. So I thank you for all your answers.